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FEEW believes that meeting global
requirements of Food, Energy, Environment & Water in the 21st century will
require technological, social, financial & political ingenuity. With the
global population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, we can expect intense
competition for resources between nations and within nations.

It wasn't long ago when the spectre of rising
prices led to serious introspection, globally. The Sunday Herald (March 11
2009), had reported “High prices have already prompted a string of food
protests around the world, with tortilla riots in Mexico, disputes over food
rationing in West Bengal and protests over grain prices in Senegal, Mauritania
and other parts of Africa. In Yemen, children have marched to highlight their
hunger, while in London last week hundreds of pig farmers protested outside
Downing Street.” More recently, the United States’ National Intelligence
Council in its report dated 10th May 2012 said that nations reliant on food
imports, including Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sudan, are especially
vulnerable to unrest. The report noted that more than 60 riots erupted
worldwide from 2007 to 2009 as food prices surged.

According to the UN, food production will
need to expand by 70 percent by 2050 as 2 billion people are added to the
population. FAO estimates show that in 1960 an average hectare of arable land,
supported 2.4 persons. By 2005 this figure had increased to 4.5 persons per
hectare and by 2050, a single hectare of land would need to support between 6.1
and 6.4 people.

According to BP's Energy Outlook 2035, more
than 80% of global oil reserves are located in nine countries and more than 60%
of the world’s known reserves of natural gas are in just four countries. Demand
for energy is forecasted to rise by 41 percent between 2012 to 2035. The share
of fossil fuels - oil, natural gas and coal - is projected to make up around
80% of the total energy consumption. In face of a drastic need to control
carbon emisions, such a consumption mix
poses a serious technological challenge. Even as far back as 1999, a UNEP poll
of 200 scientists in 50 countries, had identified environmental change was one
of the two most worrying problems for the new millennium.

And the other problem the poll identified
was water scarcity. Recent humanitarian catastrophes, such as the Rwandan
Genocide or the war in Sudanese Darfur, have been linked back to water
conflicts. According to UNESCO, interstate conflicts have occurred mainly in
the Middle East (disputes stemming from the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers among
Turkey, Syria, and Iraq; and the Jordan River conflict among Israel, Lebanon,
Jordan and the Palestine territories), in Africa (Nile River-related conflicts
among Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan), as well as in Central Asia (the Aral Sea
conflict among Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and
Kyrgyzstan).

FEEW believes that these imminent
challenges are also great opportunities for science, business, and governments
to collectively work towards global sustainability.